Most of the used blocks are already known technology like the symmetric wideband amplifier for the Power Amplifier represented by a differential amplifier in cascode structure and the common base (common gate) differential Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) in the receiving path. Also the use of transistors in Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Technology (CMOS) for switches is well known. Especially n-type and p-type Metal Oxid Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors especially (NMOSFET and PMOSFET) are used to construct Transmission Gates or Analog Switches. Most of these basic circuits may be found in “Halbieiter-Schaltungstechnik” of Tietze and Schenk, published by Springer or “CMOS Analog Circuit Design” of Allen and Holberg published Oxford University Press.
A typical RE-transceiver is presented in the Radio communication apparatus of EP 1 176 709 A2 showing a typical front-end of actual designs. The need of a disadvantageous additional switch to commutate the transfer direction from and to the antenna is shown.
Most transceivers prefer common source configurations to common gate for the LNA especially resistively matched LNAs or feedback LNAs and inductively-degenerated LNAs.
An Ultra Wide Band CMOS Transceiver with common gate input stage of NMOS devices has been presented by Razavi and others in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits Vol. 40 in December 2005. This circuit also allows direct (implicitly) sharing of the receiver antenna with the transmitter.
A 0.18 μm Thin Oxide CMOS Transceiver Front-End with Integrated TX/RX Commutator for Low Cost Bluetooth Solutions has been published by Vincent Knopik and Didier Belot of STMicroelectronics in 2003 (ESSCIRC Poster 24). This Front-End does not use an antenna switch. The main idea is to put the device (either PA or LNA) in power down mode when it is not active. That solution uses only one pin for both RF-input and output. The LNA impedance is matched to the antenna, and the PA output's impedance is optimised for the LNA. The LNA uses common gate topology with NMOS devices.